By now it should be clear how much self loves constructing lists. And book lists best of all.

Self set herself a goodreads Reading Challenge of 32 books, which is pretty ambitious considering last year she didn’t make her challenge goal of 26 books.

Nevertheless.

Books Read This Year (in the order of their Goodreads Average Rating)

The Odyssey (the translation by Emily Wilson)

La Belle Sauvage, by Philip Pullman

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien

The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman

The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson

The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman

Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck

The Romanovs: 1613 – 1918, by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

Conclave, by Robert Harris

Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire, by Leslie Peirce

In the Lake of the Woods, by Tim O’Brien

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

Mikhail and Margarita, by Julie Lekstrom Himes

The Mandibles, A Family: 2029 – 2047, by Lionel Shriver

Moshi Moshi, by Banana Yoshimoto

Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

As Lie Is to Grin, by Simeon Marsalis

Today, self went poring over her recommended reading list and discarded a list called “Recommended Summer Reading” (downloaded from a literary website). Summer is practically half over and by the time she gets to the books on that list, it will be winter.

On her To-Read list 2018 are a biography of Daphne du Maurier and three du Maurier novels. She hopes she can get to them soon. She wishes Steinbeck weren’t so engaging because he is really slowing down her reading rate. Before she began Travels with Charley she read an average of a book a week.